Dynamic interest profiles: Tracking user interests using personal information

Abstract

When building applications it is usually the case that developers are forced to focus on "one size fits all" solutions. Customization is often burdensome for the user, or so complex that it would be unrealistic to ask an end user to undertake this task. In the areas of personal information management and collaboration there is no reason to accept this limitation, as there is a body of information about the user that reflects their interests: namely their personal documents. The Dynamic Interest Profile (DIP) is a system intended to track user interests, allowing for the creation of more intelligent applications. In this paper we discuss our approach to implementing the DIP, challenges that this implementation presents, as well as the security and privacy concerns that the existence of such an application raises.